one of the pioneers of the New Literature movement, which advocated
realism and vernacular language. In 1919, he wrote his first vernacular
poem, “Chunyu” (Spring Rain), and published his first vernacular story,
“Zhe ye shi yige ren” (Is This a Human Being?), about the misfortunes
of a country woman, which echoes the theme of Lu Xun’s “Diary of a
Madman” published nine months earlier. Gemo (Barrier), published in
1922, is the second collection of short stories of the New Literature, af-
ter Chenlun (Sinking) by Yu Dafu. Huo zai (Fire), his second collection
of short stories, was published in 1923, followed closely by four more
collections of short stories and one novel.
Ye is best known for his portrayals of schools and teachers in his
short stories with which he expresses his views on education, shaped
during his many years of teaching under the influence of the May Fourth
Movement with its emphasis on science and democracy. These stories
expose the ills of the traditional system of education. The characters,
mostly teachers, are ridiculed either because they muddle through life
like Mr. Wu in “Fan” (Meals) or because they are cruel and abusive, as
the English teacher in “Yi er” (Adopted Son) and the history teacher
in “Fengchao” (Agitation). Some of his characters, such as those in
“Yunyi” (Dark Clouds), are empty-headed and idle away their time by
filling their minds with silly love letters. Others degenerate into gam-
blers and engage in promiscuous activities, like those in “Xiaozhang”
(The Headmaster). By attacking the old system, Ye advocates a new
educational philosophy that instead of cramming students’ heads with
useless knowledge provides an environment conducive to the free
development of children’s intellects. To that end, the subservient role
the student plays in the traditional system must be replaced by an equal
and fair relationship between the teacher and the student, as advocated
and carried out by the protagonist in Ye’s novel Ni Huanzhi (Ni Huanzhi
the Schoolteacher).
Ni Huanzhi, completed in 1928, is the author’s only novel and one of

the few full-length novels in early modern Chinese literature. In the May
Fourth era the short story was the predominant genre while the novel,
because of the technical difficulties demanded by its length, was not a
popular choice for most writers. By the time Ni Huanzhi came out, there
had been a dozen or so novels written, mostly medium-length texts, the
most notable of which was Lu Xun’s Ah Q zhengzhuan (The True Story
of Ah Q). With the exception of Lu Xun’s work, the other novels, in the
words of Mao Dun, only touched “a tiny corner of a person’s life.” In
242 • YE SHENGTAO, PEN NAME OF YE SHAOJUN
Ni Huanzhi, the author places the protagonist in the midst of the major
events of a turbulent era and depicts a significant historical period from
1911 to 1927. Ni Huanzhi is an idealistic, reform-minded educator.
Convinced that education is the hope of all hopes, he, together with the
headmaster, experiments with new methodologies despite strong resis-
tance from the staff and the parents. They teach practical knowledge and
allow the students to develop their personalities in an open environment.
Ni is a modern man living in a world still governed by traditional values.
Neither his educational reform nor his marriage can succeed in such an
environment. He dies, still young but already broken, longing for the
bright day when “there must be people different from us.”
In the field of children’s literature, the short stories, fairy tales, and
songs Ye wrote for children are still widely used in schools across the
nation. Modern Chinese fairy tales, before Ye, were either rewritings
of traditional mythical tales or translations from foreign texts. Daocao
ren (Scarecrow), published in 1923, opened a new direction for the
writing of fairy tales. Ye’s fairy tales create a fantasy world imagined
and perceived from the innocent perspectives of children. Nature and
animals dominate these tales, and the morals of “beauty” and “love” are
conveyed subtly.
As editor for literary journals, most notably Xiaoshuo yuebao (Fiction

Monthly), Ye discovered and nurtured many new poets and novelists,
and many prominent writers were his frequent contributors. During his
tenure as editor of several influential journals and publishing houses, he
helped publish some of the most prominent writings of modern Chinese
literature.
YE WEILIAN, A.K.A. WAI-LIM YIP (1937– ). Poet, essayist, trans-
lator, and scholar. Born in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, Ye
Weilian received his B.A. from National Taiwan University, his M.A.
from the University of Iowa, and his Ph.D. from Princeton Univer-
sity. He currently teaches comparative literature at the University of
California, San Diego. A poet and scholar, Ye has authored numer-
ous books in Chinese and in English. In 1978, the media in Taiwan
named him one of the 10 greatest modern Chinese poets. Ye is a poet
of modernist sensibilities who also exhibits Taoist and Buddhist aes-
thetics; his poems are expressions of spontaneous feelings as well as
philosophical and intellectual inquiries. Written in a variety of styles
and on a wide range of themes, they capitalize on the poet’s deep cul-
YE WEILIAN, A.K.A. WAI-LIM YIP • 243
tural roots and solid learning, both Chinese and Western. His essays,
like his poems, are examples of belles lettres.
Ye is an influential scholar in comparative poetics. He is also a noted
translator and scholar of Chinese poetry. His translation of Wang Wei’s
poetry, Hiding the Universe: Poems of Wang Wei, and particularly his
anthology, Chinese Poetry: Major Modes and Genres, both published
in the early 1970s, have been widely adopted in the classrooms of
American colleges. Two other books of translations, Modern Chinese
Poetry, 1955–1965 and Lyrics from Shelters: Modern Chinese Poetry
1930–1950, which appeared respectively in 1976 and 1992, are also
important scholarly contributions. He introduced Western modernist
poets, including T. S. Eliot, to Chinese readers in the 1970s, helping

launch Taiwan’s modernist poetry. See also HONG KONG; MODERN
POETRY MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN.
YE ZHAOYAN (1957– ). Fiction writer. A Nanjing native and grandson
of Ye Shengtao, Ye Zhaoyan graduated from Nanjing University and
became known in the 1980s through the publication of several stories,
including “Xuangua de lü pinguo” (A Hanging Green Apple), “Wuyue
de huanghun” (Dusk in May), “Lüse kafeiguan” (A Green Café), and
Zaoshu de gushi (The Story of a Date Tree), which established his repu-
tation as an innovative stylist. Since then, he has written several novels,
more short stories, and numerous essays. Like most young writers in
the 1980s, Ye came under the influence of Latin American magic real-
ism. “Zaoshu de gushi” echoes Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred
Years of Solitude in foregrounding the role of the narrator. This story
features a woman and her chance encounters with several men at a time
of great political uncertainty. The narrator tells the tragic story with
many moments of lighthearted humor, emphasizing the helplessness of
individuals facing their capricious and unpredictable fates.
His tales about old Nanjing under the poetic title of Ye bo Qinhuai
(Anchored at Night in the Qinhuai River) paint cameos of personalities
and scenes of Nanjing in the 1930s and 1940s. All four stories in the
series have the city’s famous sites for titles. “Zhuangyuan jing” (The
Number One Scholar’s Mirror) is a love story between a humble musi-
cian and a warlord’s concubine. “Shizi pu” (The Shop at the Crossroad)
portrays the sinister world of government and the successes and failures
of romantic relationships among the city’s upper class. “Zhuiyue lou”
(The Moon Chasing Pavilion) tells of the courageous life of an old
244 • YE ZHAOYAN
scholar who refuses to collaborate with the Japanese. “Banbian yin”
(Half of a Camp) details the disintegration of a large established fam-
ily after the Japanese defeat. Along the same line, Ye wrote Hua ying

(The Shadow of Flowers), relating a moving tale about an old spinster
who inherits a large fortune and is ruined as a result of the fierce fight
between her and her relatives for control of the inheritance. The movie
version of the story is Chen Kaige’s Feng yue (Temptress Moon). Hua
sha (The Ghost of Flowers) is the least traditional of Ye’s neohistorical
stories. The author injects the historical narration with a dose of con-
temporary sensibility by creating an ironic distance between the narrator
and the characters. The story begins in the late Qing dynasty and ends
half a century later in the Republican period, focusing on a local hero,
who is executed for burning Christian churches and killing missionar-
ies, and his posthumous son and half brother who terrorize a southern
Chinese town. Among Ye’s neohistorical stories, the best known is
Yijiusanqi nian de aiqing (Nanjing 1937: A Love Story), a saga set on
the eve of the Japanese massacre of Nanjing, about a passionate court-
ship launched by a determined former philanderer who is oblivious to
the coming of the Japanese onslaught. Narrated with humor and with
little sentimentality, the novel is a poignant personal story played out
on a grand historical stage.
Ye has written several novels and novellas about contemporary life,
notably the allegorical Meiyou boli de huafang (The Greenhouse with-
out Glass) set during the Cultural Revolution, and Women de xin duo
wangu (Our Hearts Are So Stubborn), which traces the sexual encoun-
ters of a man during his 40 years of life. See also ROOT-SEEKING
MOVEMENT; SINO-JAPANESE WAR.
YI SHU, PEN NAME OF NI YISHU (1946– ). Romance writer. Born
in Shanghai, Yi Shu, younger sister of science fiction writer Ni Kuang,
moved with her family to Hong Kong at the age of two. At 15, she was
already a published author whose stories appeared in the literary supple-
ments of local newspapers. After graduating from high school, Yi Shu
worked as a journalist and editor for a movie magazine. In 1973, she

went to England to study hotel management. After she returned to Hong
Kong, she worked for a hotel and later for the Hong Kong government.
Seven years later, she quit her job and moved to Canada. Yi Shu special-
izes in popular love stories. Some of her romantic tales have been turned
into films. Among her numerous books are Meigui de gushi (The Story
YI SHU, PEN NAME OF NI YISHU • 245
of Rose) and Zhao hua xi shi (Morning Flowers Gathered at Dawn). See
also WOMEN.
YO YO, PEN NAME OF LIU YOUHONG (1955– ). Fiction writer and
essayist. Born in northwestern China, Yo Yo worked as an editor for an
art publication in Beijing prior to going abroad with her husband, poet
Yang Lian. They were in New Zealand when the Chinese government
cracked down on the Tian’anmen Prodemocracy Movement on 4
June 1989. Ever since then, the couple has been living in the West, mov-
ing from place to place before finally settling down in London. Yo Yo
began to write in the 1990s, which has resulted in many essays and short
stories, as well as several novellas collected in Renjing guihua (Human
Scenery and Ghost Speech), Ta kanjian le liangge yueliang (She Saw
Two Moons), Tishen lan diao (Substitute Blues), and Hunxi (Marriage
Game), and a novel, Ghost Tide. In many ways, her exile was the defin-
ing moment in her life and career. Many of her works deal with life in
exile in its minute daily detail. Not only does she discuss her alienation
from China, but also alienation as a human condition. The majority of
her stories portray female characters who have to negotiate between
marriage and personal space as well as malaise associated with modern
life; the stories paint the interior landscape of the modern women. Yo
Yo’s recent novel, Ghost Tide, exposes the absurdities of life in the
1950s and 1960s when China was embroiled in political fanaticism. By
identifying the strong current of traditional beliefs that runs under the
surface of Communist ideals, the novel brings into focus the struggle

of conscience that leaves deep psychological scars on Chinese people.
Through irony, humor, and fantastic mysticism, Yo Yo laments the
heavy tolls the Chinese have paid and are continuing to pay while ghosts
of the distant and recent past haunt the land.
YOU FENGWEI (1943– ). Fiction writer. A Shandong native and cur-
rently living in the city of Qingdao, You Fengwei has served in the
army and worked in a factory. His literary career began in 1976 and
since then he has published numerous short stories and novellas as
well as novels. You has written about some of the most important
events in 20th-century China, such as the Sino-Japanese War and
the Anti-Rightist Campaign. Instead of sweeping historical accounts,
You focuses on human conscience tested during critical moments of
moral and political choices. His writings provoke serious reflections
246 • YO YO, PEN NAME OF LIU YOUHONG
on the past and its connection to the present. His best-known work,
Zhongguo yijiuqwuqi (China, 1957), a novel about how the cruel ma-
chine of the state sets out to destroy the soul of Chinese intellectuals,
is hailed as a book of “intellectual and moral conscience” that has
reopened a “wound” in modern Chinese history. The Anti-Rightist
Campaign that began in 1957 is generally agreed to be a political
operation that “castrated” the whole class of Chinese intellectuals
by turning them from idealistic, liberal-minded thinkers into, in the
words of the protagonist of the novel, “shameless dogs” begging
for mercy at the feet of their masters. More than any other political
campaign, it is responsible for brainwashing, humiliating, and break-
ing the spirit of the educated, the cream of society. The bulk of the
poignant story takes place in a prison and a labor camp, with 20 years
of events reflected through the words of the protagonist. While expos-
ing the brutality of political persecution, the novel also laments the
inherent weaknesses of Chinese intellectuals. Yibo (Legacy) narrates

two related episodes in the protagonist’s life: in 1949 when he was
saved by a peasant in a harrowing escape from the communist-con-
trolled mainland to Taiwan and then in the reform era when the man,
now a Chinese American, goes back to the mainland to pay his debt
by trying to help the peasant’s son build a fruit-processing factory.
Niqiu (Loach), a novel about migrant workers in Beijing, sheds light
on the life of the underprivileged population trying to stay alive at the
margins of society. Se (Seduction), another novel set in urban China,
deals with the inner struggles of a successful businessman faced with
all kinds of seduction that a modern city life throws his way: money,
sex, power, and fame. In addition to novels, You has written many
short stories, including those collected in Yizhuang anjian de jizhong
shuofa (Several Versions of the Same Case).
YU DAFU, A.K.A. YU TA-FU (1896–1945). Fiction writer and poet.
One of the most talented writers of the May Fourth era, Yu Dafu was
a sentimental and lyrical fiction writer. His life, with three marriages,
two divorces, and a tragic death, is the stuff that makes fiction. Born
to a father who was a minor county official, Yu went to Japan at the
age of 18 with his eldest brother, a judge in Beijing. He stayed there,
off and on, for 10 years, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics in
1922. His sojourn in Japan figures prominently in his most famous
YU DAFU, A.K.A. YU TA-FU • 247
story, “Chenlun” (Sinking). He was, arguably, the most talented poet
among modern Chinese writers who wrote in the classical style,
though he never took his own poetry seriously.
By all accounts, his short story collection Chenlun (Sinking) was
a landmark in modern Chinese literature. In addition to the title
story, two other stories are included in the collection: “Nanqian”
(Moving South) and “Yinhui se de si” (The Silver-grey Death). The
book caused a storm and was derided as indecent for its overt sexual

descriptions. Years later, Yu still complained about the “abuses and
insults” his critics heaped upon him. However, when Zhou Zuoren
wrote an article in the literary supplement of the Beijing Morning
News defending the author, the tide of public opinion turned. The
book became a commercial as well as a critical success. “Chenlun” is
a medium-length story about a Chinese student studying in Japan who
suffers from schizophrenia. Tormented by his nation’s weakness and
his own sexual inhibition, he cannot shake off a sense of inferiority
that trails him like a shadow. He tries to overcome his psychological
and physiological paralysis by going to brothels, but to no avail. In the
end, death is the only solution. Before he drowns himself in the ocean,
he cries out in the direction of China, “Oh my motherland, you are the
reason why I die. Become rich and strong as soon as possible. You still
have a lot of children who are suffering there.” Yu injects into the suf-
ferings of the individual a dose of national tragedy, turning the hero’s
illness into “the disease of the age.” The semiautobiographical nature
of “Chenlun” and the other two stories in the collection, and their
frank descriptions of private feelings, especially sexual urges, earned
the author the reputation of an exhibitionist. Yu did not deny the inti-
mate connection between himself and his work. To him, all works of
art were expressions of the self, a belief that reflects the aesthetics of
the Chinese lyrical tradition as well as the influence from the Japanese
Shishosetsu, the I-novel.
Yu’s writings published after his return to China in 1922, though
still intensely lyrical and sentimental, are much more removed from his
personal life. The financial difficulties he had helped turn his attention
to searching for social and political answers. “Chunfeng chenzui de
wanshang” (Nights of Spring Fever), a short piece written in 1923, tells
the story of a poor and frustrated intellectual who, living in a slum in
Shanghai, gets to know a female worker employed in a cigarette fac-

248 • YU DAFU, A.K.A. YU TA-FU
tory. Similarly, “Bo dian” (A Humble Sacrifice) is about the encounter
between an impoverished intellectual and a rickshaw puller in Beijing.
Told in his preferred first-person narrative, stories such as these put
the intellectual, who evidently embodies the sentiments of the writer
himself, in the company of the working class, reflecting the progressive
trend of the times.
The dominant theme, however, remains the loss of youth and love.
In stories such as “Guoqu” (The Past) and “Chu ben” (Run Away),
a dark and pessimistic tone reverberates throughout the narrative, a
characteristic of Yu’s writing that earned him the reputation of a “deca-
dent” writer. In the early 1930s, Yu left the left-wing literary circle in
Shanghai, against the advice of Lu Xun, and led a quiet family life in
Hangzhou, where he wrote several stories. One of them is his personal
favorite, “Chi guihua” (Late-Flowering Cassia), a lyrical tale about a
man who falls in love with a vivacious woman whose unadorned beauty
blends seamlessly with the idyllic environment where the air is tinged
with the fragrance of blooming cassia. This picture of innocence and
beauty is far removed from reality and a sharp contrast to the turmoil en-
gulfing the author as well as the nation. The refined sensibility conveyed
through the protagonist embodies the author’s artistic self: subjective,
sentimental, romantic, and spontaneous.
At the end of 1938, Yu went to Singapore, and during the next three
years he worked as editor-in-chief for the literary supplement to the
Xinzhou Daily and the Weekly of the Overseas Chinese. He wrote many
short, poignant political and literary essays, along with travelogues and
old-style poems. The Sino-Japanese War took a serious toll on Yu. His
mother was starved to death and his eldest brother was assassinated by
the Japanese. Just before the Pacific War ended, the Japanese military
police arrested and murdered Yu in Indonesia. See also CREATION

SOCIETY.
YU GUANGZHONG, A.K.A. YU KUANG-CHUNG (1928– ). Poet,
essayist, and translator. Born in Nanjing, Yu attended middle school
in Sichuan during the Sino-Japanese War and studied at Jinling Uni-
versity and Xiamen University before moving to Hong Kong with his
parents in 1949. A year later, the family moved to Taiwan, following
the Nationalist government’s retreat to the island. Yu graduated from
the Foreign Languages Department of National Taiwan University and
YU GUANGZHONG, A.K.A. YU KUANG-CHUNG • 249
received a master’s degree from the University of Iowa. From 1974 to
1985, he taught literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He
has lived in the United States twice as a Fulbright scholar. A noted poet,
Yu is well received in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: places that are
intimate, like “mother, wife, and lover,” to him. His best-known poems
include “Xiangchou” (Nostalgia), an emotional and melancholy verse
about his longing for his homeland.
Throughout his career, Yu has moved back and forth between
modernism and traditionalism. In many ways, his poetry reflects the
major trends in Taiwan’s literary development in the 20th century. In
the late 1950s, when he was studying at the University of Iowa, Yu
experimented with modernism and produced some abstract poems that
betrayed a nihilist outlook. In the 1960s, he showed a strong desire to be
connected with his cultural roots in poems such as “Qiaoda yue” (Per-
cussion) and “Dang wo si shi” (At the Time of My Death). In the 1970s,
he absorbed elements from folk songs and wrote such memorable lyrics
as “Baiyu kugua” and continued his journey in search of history and
cultural heritage, which resulted in “Yu yongheng bahe” (A Tug-of-War
with Eternity), “Jiuguang tielu” (Railroad between Jiulong and Guang-
zhou), “Xun Li Bai” (In Search of Li Bai), and “Ye tu Dongpo” (Read-
ing Dongpo at Night). At the same time, he got embroiled in a political/

literary storm. His article “Lang lai le” (The Wolves Are Coming), pub-
lished in 1977, condemned Taiwan’s nativists (xiangtu pai), especially
one of the leading voices, Chen Yingzhen, for espousing values of pro-
letarian literature promoted in Communist China, a damaging charge in
a poltical environment of “white terror” created by the despotic rule of
Chiang Kai-shek and his government.
Since the 1980s, Yu has “returned home” in more than one sense.
With the publication of his poems on the mainland, he has been invited
back to give lectures there, where the sense of nostalgia expressed in
his poems finds adulating audiences. Yu is a versatile as well as prolific
writer. His poetic style changes with his themes. Patriotic sentiment is
often conveyed in bold and robust words and vigorous rhythms, while
nostalgia and love are articulated with tender diction and languid ca-
dence. His lyrical essays on a variety of topics have also won critical
acclaim. He is a noted translator of Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway,
and many other English and American writers. He has won numerous
literary awards in Taiwan, including the National Literary Award in Po-
250 • YU GUANGZHONG, A.K.A. YU KUANG-CHUNG
etry and the Wu San-lian Literary Award in Prose. See also MODERN
POETRY MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN.
YU HUA (1960– ). Fiction writer. Yu Hua is one of the best writers in
modern Chinese literature. Known primarily as a prominent avant-garde
writer whose experimental fiction focuses on narrative innovation, Yu
is a diverse author who has also worked with both traditional Chinese
literary forms and the realist genre. Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Prov-
ince, Yu followed his parents at the age of three to Haiyan in northen
Zhejiang. He later studied medicine and worked for several years as a
dentist in a county hospital. Envious of the free life of a writer, he began
to write in 1983 and published his first story at the age of 25.
In the beginning of his career, Yu experimented with new narrative

techniques and showed an obsession with a clinical perspective on brutal
acts. “Yijiu baliu” (1986), a story about a man going insane, possibly as
a result of the persecutions he has been put through during the Cultural
Revolution, is a case in point. The excessive savage imageries of murder,
schizophrenia, and violence are presented graphically and salaciously.
Whether the thoughtless, unmitigated brutality depicted in the story has
some symbolic implications is a subject for debate, but it is obvious that
such a relentless cataloging of butchery reveals the author’s fascination
with acts of violence. Zai xiyu zhong huhuan (Cries in the Drizzle) and
Xianshi yizhong (One Kind of Reality) both belong to this group of experi-
mental writings. Yu has also tried to breathe some new life into the old
forms of traditional Chinese literature. His novel Xianxue meihua (Blood
and Plum Blossoms) is a parody of Chinese “knight errant” fiction (wuxia
xiaoshuo), and “Gudian aiqing” (Classical Love) is based on the tradi-
tional genre of “scholar and beauty fiction” (caizi jiaren xiaoshuo).
Yu’s realist narratives are spellbinding tales with profound social
implications. Huozhe (To Live) and Xu Sanguan mai xue ji (The
Chronicle of a Blood Merchant) are two such powerful stories. Both
are about the survival of the little man in the face of unpredictable
twists of fate. Huozhe is a historical epic about Fugui, the spoiled
son of a rich family, who, unable to take destiny into his own hands,
drifts as a tragic figure in the violent currents of 20th-century Chi-
nese history. Tribulations visit him and his family one after another.
He endures them all. Despite his many weaknesses, the basic human
decency within him enables Fugui to arrive at a state of dignity. Xu
YU HUA • 251